It's kind of like a natural born Olympic level athlete telling the rest of us to exercise more. Sure, we'll never swim like Michael Phelps or run like Usain Bolt, but that doesn't mean that regular exercise won't make us more healthy.

This is a fools game, as it has been rightly pointed out that the lottery in all its forms is a "tax on people who are bad at math". On average, you'll never win back enough to make up for what you spend, not by a long shot. But the poor buy the damn things in droves. Whenever I see someone buying lottery tickets at a convenience store, it's not the person who just drove up in a BMW. It's the person who drove up in rusted out 1995 Ford Escort, or more likely, walked.

Those are just a couple examples of some of the bad financial decisions that tend to keep the long-term poor in economic distress. They don't really necessarily know any better, though: People tend to stay in their socio-economic class. The rich who lose all their money don't generally fall into long-term poverty due to misfortune or the occasional misstep, though they can fall into short term poverty. They end up clawing their way back out of it. The flip side of that is that the long-term poor, when given a windfall like the occasional lottery winner, almost invariably find themselves back in poverty after a while because of poor financial decision making.

The problem isn't that the poor want to be poor. They don't, obviously. It's that they don't generally have the financial skills to help them claw their way out of poverty.

dittybopper:The rich who lose all their money don't generally fall into long-term poverty due to misfortune or the occasional misstep, though they can fall into short term poverty. They end up clawing their way back out of it

There's no reason to believe your average billionaire who was born into it has any more financial sense than anyone else. They're just too big to fail. Of course you have your Zuckerbergs, Bill Gates, etc who built what they have but they're not the norm.

/happy being a multi-thousandaire//never intentionally screwed over anyone for it

Mugato:dittybopper: The rich who lose all their money don't generally fall into long-term poverty due to misfortune or the occasional misstep, though they can fall into short term poverty. They end up clawing their way back out of it

There's no reason to believe your average billionaire who was born into it has any more financial sense than anyone else.

If you are born into wealth, it's very likely that you learned your money handling skills from your parents. Those skills might not be the kind necessary to *MAKE* a fortune, but they would at least be the kind that allow you to *RETAIN* one.

The same goes for the long-term poor, in that they generally learn their financial skills from their parents.

For good or ill, we generally learn most of our money handling skills from our parents, and to a lesser extent, our peers.

That's not to say you are predestined by accident of birth: My brother-in-law was born of modest means, but by dint of hard work *AND* sacrificing immediate gratification and unnecessary frills, he's actually doing quite well for himself and his family, certainly better than I and his sister (the distaffbopper).

dittybopper:Mugato: dittybopper: The rich who lose all their money don't generally fall into long-term poverty due to misfortune or the occasional misstep, though they can fall into short term poverty. They end up clawing their way back out of it

There's no reason to believe your average billionaire who was born into it has any more financial sense than anyone else.

If you are born into wealth, it's very likely that you learned your money handling skills from your parents. Those skills might not be the kind necessary to *MAKE* a fortune, but they would at least be the kind that allow you to *RETAIN* one.

The same goes for the long-term poor, in that they generally learn their financial skills from their parents.

For good or ill, we generally learn most of our money handling skills from our parents, and to a lesser extent, our peers.

That's not to say you are predestined by accident of birth: My brother-in-law was born of modest means, but by dint of hard work *AND* sacrificing immediate gratification and unnecessary frills, he's actually doing quite well for himself and his family, certainly better than I and his sister (the distaffbopper).

Sure. But it's a little galling for someone who inherited millions of dollars to sit and lecture people about hard work.

That's comical. No one gets rich from hard work. You can inherit it, you can steal it, you can exploit flaws in the financial system, you can get lucky in the stock market (assuming you have a lot of money to invest in the first place), win the lottery etc. Working won't do it for you, working makes other people rich.

Besides, it is interesting to me that the wealthy people who think this way are almost always people who inherited their money. People like Warren Buffett seem to have more of a grasp of reality, since they actually had to do something to make their money.

When a millionaire/billionaire suggests that you need to be willing to 'work hard' in order to attain their level of wealth, what they really mean to say is 'have business ambition that is unwavering and single-minded, and sometimes ruthless.' Because that's what it seems to take for a person not born in wealth to gain a higher class in American society. Otherwise, any landscaper, nurse, janitor worker, strawberry picker would be a millionaire from all their hard work.

The problem isn't that the poor want to be poor. They don't, obviously. It's that they don't generally have the financ ...

It's nothing to do with the long term poor, she is talking about the middle class. The people who do the actual work that makes people like her rich.

She might actually do some work, but that's not where here money comes from, she simply inherited a company which gives her the right to take whatever the employees of the company produce and give them as little as she can get away with.

I have never understood why someone would be able to inherit an organization anyway, like it was a piece of furniture or something. It's almost like the feudal system where nobles inherit a manor and get to take a big share of what the serfs produce, simply because of birth.

Mrs Rinehart, who has seen her fortunes rise after parlaying a multi-million dollar inheritance into a mining empire now worth more than $20 billion, blames anti-business and socialist policies for hurting the poor.

Cythraul:When a millionaire/billionaire suggests that you need to be willing to 'work hard' in order to attain their level of wealth, what they really mean to say is 'have business ambition that is unwavering and single-minded, and sometimes ruthless.' Because that's what it seems to take for a person not born in wealth to gain a higher class in American society. Otherwise, any landscaper, nurse, janitor worker, strawberry picker would be a millionaire from all their hard work.

This, absolutely this. Most wealthy people I know started with nothing, but clawed their way up with somewhat ruthless ambition, and now are very wealthy indeed. Have another buddy who started 15 years ago as help desk support and worked his way up to being considered for VP for some technology related stuff at the Fortune 500 he started at. It's all about who you know, having good judgement on when its time to shift jobs, and be willing to take a few risks here and there.

dittybopper:The problem isn't that the poor want to be poor. They don't, obviously. It's that they don't generally have the financial skills to help them claw their way out of poverty.

All of this is true, but it doesn't excuse the ultra-rich from buying political influence, for the express purpose of making sure they receive more money-making opportunities and pay less taxes, all at the expense of the poor and middle class. Which is really why everyone is pissed off at rich people; not because we're "jealous".

Like Ann Romney talking about how hard her and Mitt had it in the early days when they could only borrow tens of thousands of dollars from their parents... Life is so hard and they made it all on their own.

shadownick:Cythraul: When a millionaire/billionaire suggests that you need to be willing to 'work hard' in order to attain their level of wealth, what they really mean to say is 'have business ambition that is unwavering and single-minded, and sometimes ruthless.' Because that's what it seems to take for a person not born in wealth to gain a higher class in American society. Otherwise, any landscaper, nurse, janitor worker, strawberry picker would be a millionaire from all their hard work.

This, absolutely this. Most wealthy people I know started with nothing, but clawed their way up with somewhat ruthless ambition, and now are very wealthy indeed. Have another buddy who started 15 years ago as help desk support and worked his way up to being considered for VP for some technology related stuff at the Fortune 500 he started at. It's all about who you know, having good judgement on when its time to shift jobs, and be willing to take a few risks here and there.

Also keep in mind that people who are not born in wealth but become wealthy are usually slaves to their jobs I've met a few people like this. "Workaholic" would be a kind word to describe their work ethic. After seeing the sacrifices these kinds make in order to get more wealth, I sometimes wonder if it isn't better to try and eek out a living off of a modest middle class life than to try and become a rags-to-riches millionaire.

Headso:Like Ann Romney talking about how hard her and Mitt had it in the early days when they could only borrow tens of thousands of dollars from their parents... Life is so hard and they made it all on their own.

Didn't they also have his millions of dollars in stock options to make ends meet? My heart just farking bleeds!